Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1181 Postscript 37: Ancient Speeding Party

Li Dunshi's two friends came to visit excitedly the next day.

One is a scholar and the other is a scholar, both are sons of gentry in the suburbs of Beijing.

The student of liberal arts is called Shi Shouli, his distant ancestor is the Shi family of Culai, who moved from Leling to Tai'an in the late Tang Dynasty. At first, he was a village tycoon, and became a general in the Five Dynasties.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a great Confucian master Shi Jie, and this family once flourished culturally - only culturally. Shi Jie was as honest as water throughout his life, and after his death, his wife had to rely on friends for help.

The construction of the Shi family system is of great significance to the development of Chinese family culture. It inherited the Sui and Tang Dynasties and opened up the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It can be said that the family ancestral halls and ancestor worship systems from the Song Dynasty to the Republic of China all originated from the Shi family.

For a thing, we cannot simply evaluate its good or bad, but we must look at the environment it was in at the time.

The Five Dynasties destroyed China, and various cultural heritages were also destroyed. The reconstruction of the family system was of progressive significance at that time.

The Shi family had a very high reputation in the cultural circle, but compared with the real nobles, they had always been "poor and powerless".

Shi Shouli's branch moved to Luoyang in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty and always belonged to the small landlord class. It was not until eighty years ago that his family produced a champion and finally began to prosper.

Another science student was Han Wanli, the sixth-generation grandson of Han Shizhong.

Han Shizhong's descendants are mainly divided into three branches. The main branch is in Luoyang, one branch is in Shaanxi, and one branch is in the Qihe Protectorate.

The main branch that stayed in Luoyang was the line of Han Shizhong's eldest son. His eldest son was a civil servant and married Yue Fei's daughter.

"It turns out that you are all descendants of famous families. I am sorry for your disrespect!" Xie Yan received him warmly and was more interested in Han Wanli, after all, he had the blood of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei.

Li Dunshi said: "Brother Siyuan (Han Wanli)'s great-grandfather made many military achievements during the Dingtai Dynasty and was restored to the position of Duke!"

Han Wanli said modestly: "Loyalty to the emperor and serving the country is just my duty."

Han Shizhong's eldest son became a civil official, and his descendants could not even pass the imperial examination. The direct line could only inherit the title and live off the old capital.

Han Wanli's great-grandfather was also a worrying student, so he simply went to a military school. But he was a childhood friend of Emperor Dingtai!

Emperor Dingtai felt that the Luoyang army was out of control, and he transferred two generals and 4,000 soldiers from the border. One of the generals was Han Wanli's great-grandfather.

After that, Emperor Dingtai reorganized the army and quelled the rebellion. Han Wanli's great-grandfather was entrusted with important tasks, and his title was promoted to county duke for his meritorious service again and again. Later, he died of illness in Qihe Duhufu.

Emperor Dingtai loved Han Wanli's grandfather and made him the commander of the imperial guards.

But his performance was so bad that he once went to work drunk and fell several times in front of many ministers. Moreover, he took numerous concubines, indulged in sensual pleasures, and managed the imperial guards in a mess.

Emperor Dingtai tolerated him many times, but he never changed his ways, and finally he got rid of this guy. The Han family avoided the coup because of this, and watched the excitement throughout the whole process without supporting any party.

Han Wanli's grandfather died of illness two years ago, leaving more than 20 sons, who made a fuss every day to divide the family property, and have not yet divided the family property clearly.

Han Wanli's father was born to a concubine, and he was also a legitimate son, and he made a fuss with his brothers. Now he has been allocated more than 200 acres of land in the suburbs of Beijing and a building in the attached city block, but he has no title or official position to speak of.

As for the illegitimate sons of the Han family, they only got some floating wealth and were given a few dollars to get rid of them.

If the descendants do not work hard, Han Wanli's lineage can only be a resident and a landlord.

Shi Shouli and Han Wanli came to pay a visit today, purely because they thought Xie Yan was awesome.

After chatting for a while, Xie Yan asked, "The Grand Princess will hold a polo meeting in a few days, but I have never played polo. Do you three know anything about it?"

"I know a little bit." Han Wanli was a little embarrassed.

His grandfather had too many children and grandchildren, and they were treated differently. Every time he participated in such aristocratic activities, Han Wanli was just standing by to make up the numbers. He had few opportunities to play, and he didn't even have his own special racehorse.

Shi Shouli and Li Dunshi were even worse, as they had never played polo a few times.

Seeing this, Xie Yan quickly changed the subject and asked his follower Xie Chang to take out the chess.

These three were all descendants of aristocrats or officials. Although they had fallen into poverty, they were at least native to Luoyang and could get a lot of information.

Han Wanli said: "The two most powerful people in Luoyang today are the civil official and the military official. The civil official is naturally Prime Minister Deng, while the military official is Wu Shumi."

Xie Yan asked: "I know Prime Minister Deng, but who is Wu Shumi?"

Han Wanli knew all about this: "Wu Shumi's ancestors were bandits in the late Song Dynasty. At that time, there was a Shandong bandit named Song Jiang, who led his troops to surrender to Emperor Taizong. Song Jiang continued to lead the troops, but he had a general named Wu Song, who retired in Kaifeng."

Xie Yan's expression became very strange. How the hell did "Water Margin" come out?

Han Wanli continued, "When the imperial court sent troops to recapture Anxi, Wu Song's son followed the army to immigrate to Anxi. Because of his excellent riding and archery skills, he was recruited as a son-in-law by the garrison general. When my ancestors, Han and Yue, conquered Western Liao, this general followed him. He was promoted to a fourth-rank military officer for his military exploits and moved to Qihe Protectorate to settle down."

"This Wu Shumi of the current dynasty came to prominence when my great-grandfather quelled the Qihe rebellion. He was less than 30 years old at the time, but he was recommended to the late emperor by my great-grandfather and transferred back to Luoyang to become a general of the imperial guards. When Prince Yong launched a coup, it was also Wu Shumi who led a team of elite soldiers to escort the current empress dowager and His Majesty out of Luoyang."

"Not only did he have the merit of protecting the emperor, but he was also from Qihe like the empress dowager, so Wu Shumi naturally rose to prominence."

What Han Wanli said was not obscure, and Xie Yan could understand it.

This Privy Councilor Wu was transferred to Luoyang from Qihe. He was not closely involved with the powerful people in the capital, and he was from the same hometown as the Queen Mother Ye. Therefore, he is most suitable to be the general Tuogu and is a key chess piece in Emperor Dingtai's layout.

In order to win the trust of King Yong, Privy Council Wu even took the initiative to join in the evil deeds, so that the gang of rebellious ministers and traitors would become careless.

For Privy Council Wu, his support for King Yong's ascension was only the icing on the cake, and a successful coup would not bring much benefit. If Jiujia helps the young emperor ascend the throne, then he will be the first military minister of the Ming Dynasty!

Moreover, Privy Council Wu did not know how many chess pieces Emperor Dingtai had arranged, and always felt that the success rate of King Yong's coup was not high. When the coup actually happened, Privy Council Wu subconsciously followed Emperor Dingtai's instructions.

Xie Yan thinks this Ming Dynasty is so interesting.

The descendants of Yang Zaixing, Han Shizhong, and Wu Song all appeared alive.

As for Li Dunshi, the descendant of Li Yanxian, I'm really sorry, Xie Yan is so ignorant that he has never heard of Li Yanxian.

After playing chess and chatting, and having lunch at Li's house, Han and Shi didn't say goodbye until mid-afternoon.

Xie Yan sent them out and asked Li Dunshi privately: "What is the maximum temperature that the furnace for smelting ore can reach now?"

Li Dunshi shook his head: "I don't know. They all rely on the color of the flame. No one knows the specific temperature."

Xie Yan laughed when he heard this and asked a very stupid question.

Even during the Industrial Revolution, it was impossible to accurately measure furnace temperature.

If you want to improve the performance of cement, the furnace temperature of the traditional calcining method is not enough. As long as the oven temperature is raised, the remaining ingredients are easy to prepare.

Xie Yan asked again: "Where is the most famous place for smelting steel?"

Li Dunshi thought about it carefully: "Xuzhou, Zunhua, Hanyang...well, it seems that there are also Qiongzhou, Suzhou and Guangzhou."

"Do you know those iron smelters?" Xie Yan asked.

Li Dunshi shook his head.

Xie Yan stopped discussing this topic and planned to ask the princess in two days.

When the time comes, we will cooperate with the princess and invest in our technology, while the princess will provide funds and connections. If you use the Li family's cement factory to conduct experiments, you don't have to pay back afterward, just charge less of the Li family's cement patent royalties.

For a commodity like cement, the market is very regional, and long-distance transportation will cause costs to soar.

In the future, we can build a factory in Beimang together with the princess, and the market will radiate to Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and other places. The Li family's small cement factory can definitely have some soup if they do whatever they want.

You can also license the patent to the Xie family, so that the Xie family, who are not officials, can also set up a cement factory in their hometown in Hebei.

As for others, just pay the patent fee and authorize it. Anyway, the formula is in your own hands and will not spread to a large area in a short period of time.

This thing not only requires increasing the oven temperature, but also adding other ingredients!

…

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Xie Yan went out with four male attendants and two maids, and borrowed the Li family's carriage to take Li Dunshi with him.

If you bring one more person, the princess won't say anything.

However, Li Minqiu was overjoyed that his son could sneak into the circle of powerful people again. It was indeed a good move for him to win over Bachelor Xie.

He watched the carriage leave, feeling quite emotional.

Thinking about the Li family, they were also top powerful people before the coup. Although his lineage had long since fallen out with the main sect in the city. But if the main sect is doing well, he will be honored.

The polo match was held at the Royal Racecourse, more than 20 miles away from the Li family's house.

Halfway through, Xie Yan could hear the sound of horse hooves from time to time. They must have been invited to attend the polo club.

Many children of powerful people were riding horses in the countryside, even trampling on the wheat that was about to be harvested.

These guys actually know how to compensate.

Behind them, servants riding donkeys, mules or poor horses followed, laughing and throwing copper coins into the wheat fields. Moreover, the copper coins were deliberately not strung with ropes. What they wanted was to scatter the coins and watch the farmers pick up coins in the fields for fun.

Xie Yan saw five or six young men of power, deliberately riding horses into the wheat fields, chasing and playing unscrupulously. Their followers, of course, followed suit, throwing coins and laughing.

"Whose bad boys are these?" Xie Yan asked.

Li Dunshi observed carefully: "It's too far to see clearly. The late emperor also severely punished this kind of behavior. Throwing copper coins was the countermeasure of the bad boys. Even if the court punished him, he could still claim that he did not mean it and had already compensated the farmers. ”

Xie Yan said: "The owners of the land in the suburbs of Beijing all have backgrounds, right?"

Li Dunshi smiled bitterly: "They trample on farmland, and they have to pick on others. They are just bullying the weak and fearing the tough. For example, my family's farmland is often trampled by the bad guys who go to Longmen Grottoes. These bastards don't do anything serious all day long, they only know how to play tricks. happy."

Xie Yan was silent.

Li Dunshi said: "The Queen Mother and the Prime Minister purged the rebels, beheaded and exiled many powerful people. Now these evil young men have restrained. In the past, they were more unscrupulous, and some deliberately set horses to hurt people."

Xie Yan is very familiar with this kind of people and often sees them in the media.

A group of rich and powerful drag racing gangs only lose money if they kill someone.